An interview from last year with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger hasn’t aged well. In the conversation, Gelsinger criticized the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining, calling it a “climate crisis,” right before announcing Intel’s own Bitcoin mining product, the Blockscale 1000 chip. Gelsinger claimed that Blockscale was “dramatically better” than other energy-hungry chips that were draining power grids. Fast forward to today, and Blockscale has been discontinued as part of Intel’s effort to save $10 billion by 2025. The news was initially reported by Tom’s Hardware.
Intel confirmed the discontinuation, stating that as they focus on their IDM 2.0 strategy, they’ve decided to phase out the Blockscale 1000 series ASIC while continuing to support existing customers.
The Blockscale chip was introduced last year with the expectation of tapping into the growing market for mining and digital transactions. Intel sold the chips to infrastructure companies like Argo Blockchain, GRIID Infrastructure, and Block. Raja Koduri, who previously led Intel’s accelerated computing division, supported the Blockscale project but resigned late last year. Intel has now informed customers of the product’s cancellation, with the last orders being taken in October this year, and shipments set to end in April next year. The document also revealed that there were three versions of the Blockscale chip.
The shift in cryptocurrency mining from a proof-of-work model (which requires a lot of hardware power to solve complex math problems) to a proof-of-stake model (which requires far less hardware) has further diminished the need for specialized mining chips like Blockscale. This transition has led many miners to repurpose GPUs for cloud computing and other application acceleration needs, reducing the demand for dedicated mining hardware.
In many ways, Gelsinger’s decision to cut the Blockscale chip aligns with Intel’s renewed focus on more targeted markets and engineering excellence. The Bitcoin mining chip, which was introduced somewhat as an afterthought to cater to a volatile market, no longer fits Intel’s broader strategy.
Hive Blockchain, a company involved in Bitcoin mining, had planned to receive 645 BuzzMiner devices powered by the Intel Blockscale ASIC, with plans to expand to 6,300 units. However, a recent filing from Hive shows they received 5,600 BuzzMiners, but there was no mention of Intel’s Blockscale chips or any upcoming shipments. Hive has also shifted its focus to using GPUs for Bitcoin mining and cloud-based applications, given the rising energy costs and the difficulty in mining Bitcoin. The company is testing a high-performance computing pilot with GPUs, generating significant revenue even during the crypto market downturn.
The volatility of the cryptocurrency market also impacted companies like Nvidia and AMD, which struggled to predict GPU revenue due to the unpredictable boom-and-bust cycles in mining. During the Bitcoin boom and GPU shortage, miners snatched up most of the available GPUs, driving prices up. As a result, Nvidia and AMD started targeting their GPUs at gamers and business users, locking out mining-specific features to avoid further disruptions.
